Performance hit in 8.0...or increase?

[Shan]

First off, I'd like to announce that we got quite the performance increase when it comes to RTAS instances in PT 8.0!

We are now back to the RTAS plug-in instance count that we had in 7.3 which we lost after taking a huge hit in 7.4 with the arrival of elastic audio.

But, for those who run the Dverb benchmark test during each new release to make sure we are not paying for downgrades and comparing your systems of course, you will notice quite a hit from 7.4. This may confuse some and give one the wrong idea that PT 8 just gave us a massive hit in RTAS performance and instances.

Though you will see quite the hit compared to 7.3/7.4 if you run the Dverb benchmark test in PT 8.0, this is not the case. The AudioSuite and TDM versions have always had chorus on the reverb in the Hall and Church settings in the algo. This chorus was never in the RTAS version because it pretty much takes up twice the host CPU power. The RTAS version of Dverb in PT 8.0 now has chorus on the reverb in the Hall and Church settings which takes up more CPU power. Therefore, if you do a Dverb benchmark test to see were your system compares, it will be significantly lower and appear that we got a huge hit in plug-in performance but we didn't.

If you want to benchmark your system with PT 8 and see where it compares to older systems and versions of Pro Tools, then move the D-Verb.dpm and D-Verb.dpm.rsr files from the PT 8.0 Plug-Ins folder to the Plug-Ins(Unused) folder, copy/paste both the D-Verb.dpm and .rsr files from 7.4 into your PT 8.0 Plug-Ins folder and run the D-Verb benchmark test. Doing so, you will notice that we got quite the increase in plug-in instances in PT 8.0 back to what we had in 7.3.

If you're running a session created on an earlier version of Pro Tools in 8.0 using D-Verb, you can replace the new D-verb with the older version from 7.4 to reduce the CPU hit if it's a problem.

My current stats from the following system:

- Asus P5K MB
- Intel Q6600 Quad-Core CPU
- SATAII System Drive and Audio Drives
- NVIDIA 8400 GS Graphics card
- 4G G.Skill DDR2-1066 RAM

PTLE 7.3.1cs6 - 278 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus)

PTLE 7.4cs5 - 255 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus)

PTLE 8.0 - 159 RTAS Dverbs(The new Dverb with chorus)

PTLE 8.0 - 278 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus)

Hope that info helps.

Shane

[Matt Whritenour]

I never bothered doing a DaveC test with my newest computer because the session I did on my old computers that could just barely handle my mixes had no problem playing and gave me a crap load of extra headroom on the CPU to work. But this is really good to know. I haven't even looked at Dverb yet I was too distracted by all the new plugins, didn't realize it had chorus. I would be very interested if we can get people to do this once with the Dverb with and with out chorus, and once with the A.I.R. Reverb. I'm going to try it tomorrow and see what I get.

[RussUK]

Excellent post Shane, restores my faith in the DUC and how brilliant it can be when used well.

[jmitchell1532]

I probably am answering my own question, but whats the Dverb test? Do you create the max amount of tracks and see how many Dverbs you can plug in before it freezes?

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by jmitchell1532

I probably am answering my own question, but whats the Dverb test? Do you create the max amount of tracks and see how many Dverbs you can plug in before it freezes?

There is a sticky thread at the top of this forum called:
PT Performance - Davec I & Davec II Tests

That describes the DVerb (or Davec I & Davec II) test.

[sunburst79]

I'm not sure that its not time for a Dverb 8.0 to take advantage of the new standard track counts.

But yes with the new algorithm it will be like comparing apples to donuts.

And a BIG HAND to DIGI for improving RTAS (and all the coders and Beta testers toiling endlessly into the night)

[bfx]

Thanks Shan! Once again very useful information. I also want to put my hands on PT 8 and try it out myself. But the Digi website and store are so down (at least here in good old Europe)...

[barismanco123]

You should try being in good old Brasil.Internet here seems to habve a mind of it's own.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by jmitchell1532

I probably am answering my own question, but whats the Dverb test? Do you create the max amount of tracks and see how many Dverbs you can plug in before it freezes?

D-Verb Benchmark.

Shane

[LSW]

So to sum it up - benchmark with the old DVerb = better performance. With new Dverb, a little worse.

Sounds reasonable-there'a always a trade off - more features, need more power.

Now, what about the AIR stereo verb? I think I like that one better anyway.